1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a document-viewing device and to a method of facilitating the retrieval of information.
2. Description of Prior Art
It is becoming increasingly common to store documents electronically. Such documents can comprise the traditional aspects of text and pictures, but it is increasingly possible to embed portions of sound or video clip within such documents. Such electronically stored documents can be viewed by a variety of different devices including personal computers, PDA's, etc.
Publishing has developed over a number of centuries, and arrived at various methods of grouping conventional sheets of paper as a convenient way of presenting information. It is known to produce electronic representations of such groupings that try to provide the convenience and familiarity of the groupings. It is known, for example, to provide views of documents that appear to be in the form of opened books or ringbinders, with two pages visible joined at a central spine.
To achieve an electronic representation of a document that more closely approximates a user's experience of a paper document, it is known to provide animation of the “turning” of a page in response to a user request to change pages.
Some documents published electronically, for example, those published on the World Wide Web, loose the convenience of the page based nature of paper publications, and can present the user with a block of text through which it is hard to navigate.
An example of a device that addresses these problems is shown in the co-pending U.S. patent application U.S. Ser. No. 09/715 845 filed by the applicant of this application on the Nov. 15, 2000.
Various methods of marking a reader location within a paper based document are well known. In addition to the traditional book mark, readers can insert fingers, or sticky labels, etc. between sheets to temporarily mark his/her position. Prior solutions for marking electronic documents include offering a user the ability to create a “bookmark”, wherein the user is typically offered a facility to mark a page, and for later returning to this marked page. Typically a number of pages can be marked, and the user is able to remove marks when they are no longer needed. Marking a page, un-marking a page, and returning to a marked page, are accomplished through a user interface offered by the electronic device. The user interface may involve pressing buttons on the electronic device, or tapping a stylus on a portion of a display. Such solutions rely on a knowledge of the user interface, which may be forgotten, and is not as intuitive as may be desired.
It is an aim of the present invention to provide a device and method that address the problem of the prior art and try to overcome at least some of the previously discussed problems.